5 reasons to not buy cheap, imported jewelry.

Everybody wants to look great and if you can save extra bucks by buying cheap jewelry it’s even better, Right? Well consider this, will the cheap jewelry you have chosen enhance your life or will cause you more health problems later.

If you are buying cheap jewelry with retail price under the thirty dollar mark then you should be aware of the following:

5 reasons to not buy cheap jewelry.

1. According to Ecology Center, a non profit organisation, over half of the jewelry which cost between $10 – $20 at retail price had high levels of hazardous chemicals like lead, cadmium, chromium, nickel, chlorine, mercury and arsenic. Most of these have been banned by the paint industry and are considered either an outright poison or will cause cancer.

2. Cheap jewelry is made cheap, sorry but it’s true. It is very common if you buy one of these rings, upon coming home it’s already broken. Take a look at your costume jewelry, does it looks the same as the day you got it? I’m more than sure that the gold colored metal is already flaked down to the brass or chipped out, the rhinestones on your ring or earrings fallen out or become loose.

3. According to the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission), parents and caregivers should not allow young children to be given or to play with cheap metal jewelry, especially when unsupervised. The CPSC states that: “Swallowing, sucking on or chewing a metal charm or necklace could result in exposure to lead, cadmium or other heavy metals, which are known to be toxic at certain levels of exposure.”

4. Are you really saving by buying cheap jewelry?

Don’t you think that’s it’s better to own a couple of nice silver or gold choices in jewelry which will last you as long as you decide to keep them. Rather than buying cheap shiny jewelry made who knows where and out of who knows what, that even when slightly longer lasting is only few weeks?

I know that people easily spend $10-$20 in retail store for a necklace made by slave labor in an awful environment. Versus opting for still inexpensive at $50 – $ 70 for a nice locally handmade necklace made with genuine quality metals and gemstones.

5. Jewelry should be an investment which appreciates in value rather than depreciates. If you buy low quality merchandise, it will inevitably end up in the garbage. (Or worse yet sold again to someone else and exposing them to the hazardous materials or contaminating our planet ending up in landfills.) When you buy quality merchandise, you will have possessions that hold value in your future and are easy on you conscience.

How to avoid owing cheap jewelry !

For those of you who are shopping online on sites which claim to be “handmade”, try to do your homework.

1. If the type of metal is not specified, then avoid it at all costs.

Avoid words like plated, gold colored, silver tone, and contains. Take gold for example specified at 14k, that is 58.5% gold the rest is other metals to form an alloy. This reduces the cost and can be harder which wears longer, but if the alloy comes from an unregulated country; it may contain metals you are allergic to like nickel, it may contain hazardous metals, and it may even have been treated in carcinogenic chemicals.

2. When you buy products made in USA, Canada, Western Europe where there is more regulation, then you have safer risk factor for yourself and the environment. When you buy products made in China, India or even unknown you are at risk. On top of that you are adding to promote a destructive industry risking the people that supposedly hand made the item while continuing to pollute the planet itself.

3. The coolest parts about buying local area, you are helping to keep arts alive in your community, you are getting a much more unique product, you are keeping money in your community, and you can even have a piece custom made to your tastes!